ARBUTHNOT, MAY HILL (August 27, 1884-October 2, 1969) was a nationally known educator and author who wrote several children's books and works on early childhood education. Born May Hill in Mason City, Iowa, to Frank and Mary E. (Seville) Hill, she received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1922 and an Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1924. Her first teaching experiences were at the State Teacher's College in Superior, Wisconsin, and the Ethical Culture School in New York City. In 1922 she came to Cleveland as principal of the Cleveland Kindergarten-Primary Training School, later part of Western Reserve University (now CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY). Arbuthnot served as associate professor of education at Western Reserve until her retirement in 1946. She wrote articles for Parents, the National Education Association Journal, and Elementary English Review. Arbuthnot also edited the journal Childhood Education, and gave lectures on education and children's books well into her eighties. Two of her many books, Children and Books and The Arbuthnot Anthology of Children's Literature, remained standard texts in children's literature long after her death. Among her other books were Time for Fairy Tales (1952), Time for True Tales (1953), and Children's Books Too Good to Miss (1948). Arbuthnot coauthored a series of reading texts for the Scott-Foresman Company, and in 1969 the company established a lectureship at Case Western Reserve University in her honor. She received an honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.) degree from Western Reserve University in 1961 and the Constance Lindsey Skinner Award for Children's Literature in 1959. May Hill married Charles Arbuthnot, chairman of the Economics Department at Western Reserve University, on December 17, 1932. She died in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS.
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